Purpose: The evaluation of retinal vessel attenuation is very subjective and not sufficiently reliable in patients with retinitis pigmentosa (RP). We tested semiautomatic software capable of obtaining real-time measurements of vessel diameter.
Methods: Retinal vessel diameter was calculated in 25 RP subjects and in 20 healthy controls. The Mann-Whitney test was used to compare the average values of RP patients with those of controls and subgroups of RP patients with different clinical features.
Results: The retinal vessel diameter was significantly smaller in RP patients than in controls (p < 0.001). In particular, vessel diameters were smaller in older subjects, in patients with worse ERG responses, and in patients with more severe visual field loss.
Conclusions: Computer-assisted analysis of retinal fundus pictures may be helpful in the diagnosis of RP and in monitoring disease progression.
© 2016 S. Karger AG, Basel.